21-22 MPG FUEL CONSUMPTION

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Permalink Reply by TnPD on January 14, 2010 at 3:19pm

2009 Passion 11,000 miles, (northern PA, southern NY), lots of hills

40-43MPG, (city / hwy don't matter) if you can stay under 63MPH, over 63MPH, 37-40MPG. My wife and I have taken the passion for several 400+ mile trips and octane under 91 bites into MPG, and Speed also bites. One other thing that has helped MPG is letting the automatic shift take place without "helping". Leave the throttle at one place until the shifting is over, if you take your foot out of the throttle to help it shift, it gets confused, and the MPG will drop.
Definite agreement on anything electric (AC, Fog lights, Heated seats) all take a bite out of MPG.

BUT 33MPG, I cannot imagine what I would need to do to have it drop that low.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Higday on January 14, 2010 at 6:39pm

I average 40 mpg for over 23000 miles. I get 38mpg when I go 75 to 85mph or do a lot of city driving(errands and stuff) under 50. If I drive 55 to 60 I average 44 to 47mpg

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Permalink Reply by Tommie Fantine Lauer MD, FASAM on January 14, 2010 at 7:18pm

Above 65 mph mpg goes down, wind and it goes down, allowing your foot to get heavy, goes down. I drive in semi urban and get 38-40 all the time. But in the city stop and go, I accelerate very slowly and as the clutch disengages , I lift slightly so as to have a silky smooth shift. On the highway at 62 mph I get about 42-44 unless the wind is blowing. There is nothing so satisfying as to accelerate slowly, have the jerk behind you blow by with his BMW puffing soot out the tail, then pull up behind him at the next stoplight. Happens all the time.

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell 1 day ago

TnPD;

Please see my reply to Syna. What temperature is your A/C set to? Originally, I never paid attention to the Temperature setting, and just used the black A/C switch to turn the A/C ON/OFF (it has a little red light when ON). One hot Tampa day, I'm stuck in SR54 traffic when I noticed it was definitely cold in the cabin. That's when I noticed that the A/C temperature control lever was set to 60F! (dealer personnel probably set it there).

I reset the temp lever to 75F (this lever controls a THERMOSTAT) and the A/C promptly turned itself OFF automatically. For the rest of the summer, the A/C would cycle ON/OFF in a manner that's normal for other automotive units. Sure, the cabin got a tad warmer, but was never uncomfortable since the A/C managed to keep the humidity low at the 75 deg. setting. Gas mileage improved by 3-4 MPG. Not bad!

Herb

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on January 14, 2010 at 7:48pm

I bought my 2008 SMART used with 14,000 miles on the clock. At first, I got about 25 mpg, so I took it to Mercedes for a check-up. The results came back as 36.9 mpg! I have no idea if they did anything to the car or not, but I too suddenly got city mileage in the upper 30's. Hm-mmm! Since then I've gotten as much as 47 mpg on pure Interstate runs. In addition, I drive the car hard and have noticed a gradual increase in acceleration off the line. It doesn't hurt to use the paddle shifters in the manual mode to overcome the transmission upshift lag problem. Just floor the gas and hold it down when the light goes green and upshift manually right off the line to get into second. You will literally be amazed and stupefied at your little car's performance.

I've installed an Autel MaxiTrip TP100 Auto Computer on my dash to verify these figures. It's a bit hard to set up, but the price is right. It also provides all the OBD-II test set readings you might want on engine condition, etc. It also gives you a tachometer, but it's hard to over-rev this engine since it has an electronic rev-limiter. Did I say that there are dual trip-meters too?

Herb

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell 1 day ago

Chris;

Have an MPG check done on your car by the dealer (free if you're inside the warranty). You will sit in the SMART showroom reading a book or magazine while the car is taken to Mercedes for the test. At the same time, they will upgrade the transmission software to shift like a 2009 car if you own a 2008 or 2007 Smart. You will also get a new battery and get the transmission linkage checked and greased.

If Mercedes sees that your car is delivering poor fuel mileage, they will fix whatever is wrong and won't tell you that a repair was done (sly devils!). Mercedes/Smart just want to keep you satisfied. They succeeded with me!

Here's a biggie for you: There's an outfit in Georgia (DPTune) that offers to reprogram BOTH the engine and the transmission for $550 , guaranteeing to turn your little econo-box into a micro sports car. They have a HP/Torque graph that shows 71 HP delivered at the rear wheel! I believe the part about making the transmission shifts much quicker since I already know how well the car shifts in Manual using the paddle shifters! I'll drive up there one fine day and take them up on the re-flash offer, but for now, I've just finished tapping the performance level of the Smart in its present state of tune.

I will eventually install an after-market cold-air intake pipe and a decent exhaust system (when I can find one) because our poor little car has literally been strangulated by its OEM equipment. Eventually, A turbo might enter the picture as well. Garrett (USA) makes the turbo used on the 450 model (700cc), and probably also supplies the turbo used on the 84 hp Euro 451. My exchange with DPTune on this site about these matters is encouraging; it seems that 120 HP is possible even without the turbo! Well, why not? A one-liter Suzuki GXSR motorcycle makes 160 HP! Basically, the bike engine just breathes a lot better. I see a lot of fun on the horizon.

Herb

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